DEMIGODS and MYTHOLOGY

Dem-i-god 1. Mythology. A male being, often the offspring of a god and a mortal, who has some but not all of the powers of a god. An inferior deity; a minor god. A deified man. 2. A person who is highly honored or revered.

In pagan mythology, Zeus was a Greek god, a god of the heavens and supreme deity of the ancient Greeks. He mated with earthly women who gave birth to demigods, a being that is partly divine and partly human. Zeus had dominion over the upper world, while Hades had dominion over the lower world. Hades, ruler of darkness, was an unyielding god, goading the unwilling into his realm with a pitchfork. The souls of the dead were met by Hades'dog Cerberus, who guarded the gates of Hades so that they could never again emerge. After judgment, the soul was allocated to a place of torment in the lower underworld.

In Roman mythology, Jupiter was the supreme deity of all Roman gods, a god of storms and of lightning, who is identified with the Greek god, Zeus. Jupiter was worshipped in a triad with two other gods. Virgins had special roles, such as Vesta, goddess of the private and public hearth, Vesta's holy hearth was tended by vestal virgins, who had to remain chaste during their duties.

The Trinitarian arrangement of the deities in ancient Egypt seems to have been traditional, such as Osiris (father), Isis (mother), and Horus (son). This triad was so much accepted, that a Temple of Isis was built in Rome in 38 CE. There are many graphic and sculptural images of Isis holding maternally in her lap the divine child Horus. The image of mother and child was to have a profound effect on early Christian iconography (symbolic representation, the meanings attached to an image).

Another Roman god was Mithras, a Persian deity of light and truth who was represented as the "savior from death". Mithras too was solarized, shared with the sun-god Sol, the god of “Constantine” before his conversion to Christianity. It was not till the end of the third century that toleration was withdrawn from the cults of the vestal Virgins and of the Great Mother, and paganism systematically suppressed. In Persia, their mythology belief that even after death, for the first three days and niqhts, demons lie in wait to attack the soul.

There is a consent battle between good and evil, the ultimate triumph of "Good" was assured with the birth of Ahura Mazda's son Zoroaster to a virgin. Zoroaster's revelation and his mission to teach doctrine could not be swayed by temptations from the demons. The pendulum swings of good and evil are to be repeated three times during the period after Zoroaster's revelation at thousand-year intervals. In each cycle, a son of Zoroaster will be born to a virgin. In the first two cycles, evil will nearly destroy the world, but creation will be saved by the slaying of an arch-demon. In the third cycle, the saviour Soshyant will preside over the final triumph of good. Men's souls will be resurrected and reunited with their bodies so that they may pass to final judgment as whole men.

Webster’ dictionary define "religion" as a belief in a divine or superhuman power or powers to be obeyed and worshiped as the creator(s) and ruler(s) of the universe and an expression of such a belief in conduct and ritual often involving a code of ethics and a common philosophy. There are thousands of definitions of what is a religion. Religion is not only based upon a belief in one or more gods or in supernatural beings, it can also be based of a way of living rather than a way of believing. All religions include a code of conduct, called "ethics". But religion is more than ethics because ethics only asks the question: How should we behave toward other people? Religion, however, should ask the question: How should we relate ourselves to the greater power in the universe, God?

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